Discovery BoxNumbers 11:12 
Context11:12 Did I conceive this entire people? 1 Did I give birth to 2 them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father 3 bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?
Numbers 14:18
Context14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, 4 forgiving iniquity and transgression, 5 but by no means clearing 6 the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ 7
Numbers 27:7
Context27:7 “The daughters of Zelophehad have a valid claim. 8 You must indeed 9 give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s relatives, and you must transfer 10 the inheritance of their father to them.
Numbers 30:16
Context30:16 These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses, relating to 11 a man and his wife, and a father and his young daughter who is still living in her father’s house.
Numbers 36:6
Context36:6 This is what 12 the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry 13 whomever they think best, 14 only they must marry within the family of their father’s tribe.
1 sn The questions Moses asks are rhetorical. He is actually affirming that they are not his people, that he did not produce them, but now is to support them. His point is that God produced this nation, but has put the burden of caring for their needs on him.
2 tn The verb means “to beget, give birth to.” The figurative image from procreation completes the parallel question, first the conceiving and second the giving birth to the nation.
3 tn The word אֹמֵן (’omen) is often translated “nurse,” but the form is a masculine form and would better be rendered as a “foster parent.” This does not work as well, though, with the יֹנֵק (yoneq), the “sucking child.” The two metaphors are simply designed to portray the duty of a parent to a child as a picture of Moses’ duty for the nation. The idea that it portrays God as a mother pushes it too far (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 86-87).
4 tn The expression is רַב־חֶסֶד (rav khesed) means “much of loyal love,” or “faithful love.” Some have it “totally faithful,” but that omits the aspect of his love.
5 tn Or “rebellion.”
6 tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the verbal activity of the imperfect tense, which here serves as a habitual imperfect. Negated it states what God does not do; and the infinitive makes that certain.
7 sn The Decalogue adds “to those who hate me.” The point of the line is that the effects of sin, if not the sinful traits themselves, are passed on to the next generation.
8 tn Heb “[the daughters of Zelophehad] speak right” (using the participle דֹּבְרֹת [dovÿrot] with כֵּן [ken]).
9 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense. The imperfect is functioning as the imperfect of instruction, and so the infinitive strengthens the force of the instruction.
10 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive, from the root עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”). Here it functions as the equivalent of the imperfect of instruction: “and you shall cause to pass,” meaning, “transfer.”
11 tn Heb “between.”
12 tn Heb “the word that.”
13 tn The idiom again is “let them be for wives for….”
14 tn Heb “to the one who is good in their eyes.”
